ROCKET
Laval

3-4

AMERICANS
Rochester

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Terry – Audette – Carr
Holland – Froese – Baun
Boucher – Petti – Waked
Broll – Ebbing – Veilleux[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Taormina – Lernout
Jerabek – Parisi
Deslauriers – Leblanc[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Lindgren
Fucale

Scratches:

Eric Gelinas, Simon Bourque, Martin Reway

Injury List:

Noah Juulsen (foot), Jeremiah Addison (shoulder), Markus Eisenschmid (lower body), Jeremy Gregoire

Game Report

If the Rocket found themselves disappointed by their loss to the Amerks on Wednesday night, then their Friday night performance didn’t help to cheer them up.

With a slightly different-looking lineup due to Martin Reway not traveling with the team as his future in the AHL has come into question, and Nick Deslauriers being moved to a defensive position, the Rocket came out strong early on. They killed off two penalties in the first half of the opening period and then took a 1-0 lead off of a Stefan Leblanc slap shot from the high slot that bounced up and over Linus Ullmark.

In the second period, Laval really turned up the heat with a beautiful goal by Peter Holland, off a back pass from Chris Terry who had received the puck near the crease from a point shot by Kyle Baun. Byron Froese was the next Rocket forward to pot a goal, with a nifty backhander past Ullmark.

But then, in the final frame, things unraveled. Discipline disappeared, as penalty after penalty left Laval shorthanded. Defensively, players looked disorganized and out of position and the Americans responded with three goals in the period to tie the game. Nick Baptiste buried two of those pucks just over a minute apart to force overtime with 22 seconds remaining.

The most gut-wrenching portion of the game happened in overtime, when the Rocket found themselves on a 4-on-3 power play halfway into the extra minutes. A bad/lazy change by Holland allowed a Rochester skater through the neutral zone, leaving Matt Taormina on a 2-on-1 with Terry trying to catch up. Kyle Criscuolo banked in a hard shot off of Charlie Lindgren shorthanded to win the game.

The Laval team doesn’t have much time to dwell on these mistakes – or learn from them – as they hit the ice again tomorrow for an afternoon matchup in Toronto against the Marlies.

▲     Daniel Carr, Byron Froese, Stefan Leblanc, Charlie Lindgren

▼     Nick Deslauriers, Jakub Jerabek, Peter Holland

1. Nick Baptiste  RCH
2. Kyle Criscuolo  RCH
3. Stefan Leblanc  LAV

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

After talking to Sylvain Lefebvre, I would be VERY surprised to see Martin Reway back with the @RocketLaval. My guess. #Habs #GoHabsGo

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